Journal entry No. 2 - Resilience

Links to Resources:

https://www.invisiblecondition.com/blog/resilience

Invisible Condition Journal Entry No. 1. I talk about mental health, sharing our stories, and killing the stigma that surrounds mental health in order to be comfortable reaching out for support.

Transcript

Hey, Tim here, host of the Invisible Condition podcast, a show where we talk about unusually normal things. Thanks for tuning into my second journal entry. And today, the word resilience is top of mind. Now, before we get into it, before I get into story, I just wanna talk about a definition of resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility, and adjustment to external and internal demands." Okay, that's a mouthful. So a few years ago, I wrote an article on resilience. It was called the three Rs of resilience. And in that article for a leading publication, a leadership publication, I defined it as the ability to bounce back to a pre-crisis state.

when you're going through a crisis and that ability to bounce back to a pre-crisis state.

The last few years have been wild in our house. And this week has been an emotionally draining week, just navigating some struggles with one of our children. I think of the word crisis. It was almost a year ago when I sat down with my doctor and he said, you are too sick for surgery, Tim.

This is all at the same time that my career had come crashing down and I wasn't working either. So here I am too sick for surgery, not able to work and not able to eat, not able to produce iron in my body. It was a wild time. And I think about the ability to bounce back to a pre-crisis state. Well, it took some time. It took a long time.

But I learned a lot about myself through that process. Now, when I think about bouncing back to a pre-crisis state, and again, in this article that I wrote, I came up with three Rs of resilience. Refrain, reflect, and reach out.

Now going through a crisis, it's difficult to then take a pause and reframe your situation and reflect and reach out, but when you are going through something, and maybe you are today, maybe you are, as you're listening to this, or maybe you know somebody who is going through a crisis. How can we reframe what we're going through? How can we reframe it to being, what am I learning through this?

How am I handling this?

When we reflect, what are we learning through this? How have I grown through this crisis? And reach out. Have you ever tried to walk through crisis alone? It's hard, isn't it? Reaching out to those around us to support us has an incredible impact on our lives. When I was really sick,

I was trying to reframe the situation and it wasn't working. I was trying to reflect and going, what am I learning through this? How am I growing through this? And that was really hard. One thing that stood out to us was reaching out. We reached out to our community, our friends, our family, our church, and just the outpouring of support was something I couldn't have even imagined. Here we are living in a crisis. And an example that

pops into mind is our kids' school. Tanya, my wife, messaged the school to say, hey, Tim's going through surgery in a couple days. And so if the kids are a little emotional or seem not their usual selves, that's why.

teachers in my kids' class, the support staff at the school, then outpoured generosity on us, food and baking and cards, gift cards from complete strangers, money to support our family through this time. It was wild, it was incredible. Now when I sit back a year later, healthy,

I can reframe that situation as to a positive. I can reflect back and man, I grew so much. I learned a lot about myself and where I needed to work on my own emotion, work on my stress, work on my anxiety.

And I was able to reach out and we did. And now we're able to pay that forward. So when we think about resilience, we think about being able to bounce back to that pre-crisis state. What do you do? What do you do to build resilience?

When we think of building resilience, and we think about being able to reframe things, or we're able to reflect, those are growth opportunities for us. So maybe that's an opportunity for you today. Maybe you needed to hear that. We think about what we're going through, that crisis we're going through. How can we reframe our thinking from a negative to a positive? How could we reflect on what we're going through and turn that into maybe alerting opportunity and a growth opportunity. And reach out. I'm here. And people have been reaching out to me through LinkedIn and through Instagram and through the website. I'm here. Reach out to me. I don't know how I could support you today, but reach out, reach out to your friends, your family, your community. You do not need to go through life alone and suffering alone.

We are here, I'm here. So with that, this is just the thought that's rolling around in my mind this week as we're navigating something quite personal. And so with that, I hope this journal entry connects with you in some way. And if it does, let me know. I look forward to hearing from you. Hope you have an amazing day.